Yesterday I suddenly had an urge to catalogue all the wargames rules that I owned. My idea was to review what I had and work out which rules I could focus on using this year. The result of this cataloguing process was quite startling. I only counted up the rules I had in my office, which is where I keep the rules I most want to play. I did not count all the rules in the attic or those that currently only exist as pdf files on my computer, and I did not count different editions of the same rules set as multiples thereof. I also only counted up actual wargames rules, rather than including all the boardgames that I own. It turns out that I am eager to play 68 different rules sets! Yes, sixty-eight!! Looking at this number, I realise that I am already stretching myself too thin, before I even start painting. Now, before I get all depressed at this state of affairs, many of these rules sets can be played using the same figures, so the various sci-fi skirmish rules sets can all be played with my 15mm sci-fi figures. This means that I can sample different rules if I feel the urge. However, I cannot help but feel that it would make more sense to focus on just a few rules sets, play them more and learn their subtleties better so as to enjoy a better game. I certainly think that it would make more sense to reduce the list to half a dozen rules sets and focus my painting and playing on those rules. The question really is how to take control of my butterfly mind and pin it down to just a few rules sets. If I could do that then I might well be able to focus my playing and painting properly. I think I shall have to return to the system of picking one set of figures each month to paint and focusing my painting on that, as I did when first I started this blog. At present all my painting and terrain building is focused on our Towton project. That debuts at Salute in April, so I shall be able to concentrate on other games once more from May. So, which rules and which figures should I aim to paint in May? I think it will probably be reinforcements for my 15mm Bwendi (sci-fi) army, because I have some armour that it desperately needs to support it, but then I did recently get some of the new Baccus 6mm Vikings and I am rather partial to Vikings. Oh the choices ...
Just in case you are interested, here is the full list:
5150
.45 Adventures
A Coat of Steel
Abteilung
Aeronef
Age of Blood
Battle Troll
Black Powder Battles
Blitzkrieg Commander
Chaos in Cairo
Chaos in Carpathia
Combined Arms
Command Decision
DBA
Dirtside II
Fantastic Worlds
Field of Glory
FutureWarCommander
Gloire
Glutter of Ravens
Hellfire
Hellswords and Sorcery
Hordes of the Things
Imperial Commander
Impetus
Larger than Life
Laserburn
Ludus Gladiatorius
Martian Empires
Metropolis
Montjoie
Over the Top
PBI II
Pieces of Eight
Poleaxed
Polemos: FPW Commandant de Bataille
Polemos: FPW Kommandant der Armee
Polemos: GNW
Polemos: Mythic Armies
Polemos: War of the Spanish Succession
Polemos: Wars of the Roses
Rally Round the King
Red Sand, Blue Sky
Regiment of Foote
Retinue
Rudis
Skjaldborg
Snapshot
Soldier's Companion
Song of Blades and Heroes
Square Bashing
Stargrunt II
Striker
Striker II
The Company Rules
Tusk
Urban War
Valhalla's Gate
Volley and Bayonet: Road to Glory
Wargods of Aegyptus
Warmaster Ancients
Warrior Heroes
Warrior Heroes: Armies and Adventures
Wastelands 3: Meltdown
Wastelands v1.2
Werod
Wings of War
Wings of War: Dawn of War
That's a lot of rules, I have 10 maybe and still to read 4 of them but if I get rid of a period the rules go with them.
ReplyDeleteYou could log the games you have actually played with BGG, giving you a grounded concrete idea what works for you (ie what gets played).
ReplyDelete@Mr Lurker: I am a rules junky and rarely get rid of rules. A lot of the rules sets that I have are there as reading material. I may take elements of them for use as house rules in other sets and I love reading about campaigns with a view to setting them up or using parts of one rules set with another campaign system.
ReplyDelete@Heiki: I log all our games on BGG but I have not really used it to check what we play most. I shall have to do that. It could make for an interesting post in its own right.